THE LOWER JAMES 

A SKETCH OF 
CERTAIN COLONIAL PLANTATIONS 

BY 
EDWARD PAYSON TERHUNE 



PRIVATELY PRINTED 

1907 






G.TT 
MRS. WOODROW V 
NOV. 25, 1339 



X 



«k 



PREFATORY 

BFTER this it was noised abroad that Mr. Valiant- 
for-truth was taken with a summons by the 
same post as the other, and had this for a token that 
the summons was true, ' ' That his pitcher was broken 
at the fountain." When he understood it he called 
for his friends and told them of it. 

Then said he — " I am going to my Father's, and 
'though with great difficulty I am got hither, yet 
now I do not repent me of all the trouble I have 
been at to arrive where I am. My sword I give to 
him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my 
courage and skill to him that gets it. My marks 
and my scars I carry with me to be a witness for me, 
that I have fought His battle Who will now be my 
rewarder. ' ' 

When the day that he must go hence was come, 
many accompanied him to the riverside, into which 
as he went, he said — " Death! where is thy sting? " 

And as he went down deeper, he said — " Grave! 
where is thy victory? " 

So he passed over and all the trumpets sounded 
for him on the Other Side. 

(" The Pilgrim's Progress from this world to that 
which is to come.") 



THE REV. EDWARD PAYSON TERHUNE, D.D. 
By the Rev. James I. Vance, D.D. 

l^vHE announcement of the death of Dr. Terhune 
V^ at his home in New York City, Saturday morn- 
ing, May 25, 1907, brought sadness to many hearts, 
north and south, east and west, for Dr. Terhune 's 
ministerial labors not only extended through the years 
of a long lifetime, but covered a wide field and blessed 
and enriched three communions. 

His early ministry was spent in Virginia, as 
pastor of the famous old Presbyterian Church at 
Charlotte Court House, which was probably at its 
best during Dr. Terhune 's pastorate. In his con- 
gregation was the cream of the Colonial families of 
the old Dominion. The young men who sat under 
his preaching there were many of them college grad- 
uates, and from his parish not a few went to fill 
places of distinction in the state and nation. Dr. 
Terhune was the spiritual adviser of these men, and 
their warm personal friend to the last. 

With his foreign pastorates in Rome and Paris, 
and his pastorates in Brooklyn and Springfield, I am 
not so familiar, but his work in Newark, where for 
eighteen years he was the minister of the First Re- 
formed Church, abides to this day, and his name and 

4 



memory will be fragrant and blessed for years to 
come. He left an impress upon this city by his 
preaching and especially through the influence of his 
striking and charming personality, that is still a 
potent force in the community. 

We looked upon him here in Newark as a sort of 
permanent pastor-in-general of the Reformed churches 
in Newark. No minister was more sought or more 
welcome as an occasional preacher, or pulpit supply 
in a pastor's absence. There are families here who 
continue to think of him as their pastor, and in times 
of sorrow and trial he came to comfort. 

His last public appearance in Newark was in con- 
nection with the semicentennial exercises of the 
North Church, when he delivered a reminiscent ad- 
dress, which is preserved in the published memorial 
volume of that occasion. 

Dr. Terhune was a minister of the finest type. 
He commanded the absolute and abiding confidence 
of those who knew him. Men of large affairs trusted 
implicitly to his wisdom and advice in matters of 
charity and benevolence. His warm heart and 
kindly manner made his presence a benediction to 
those in trouble and bereavement. His rich and 
thorough culture and his unfailing and contagious 
geniality made him the charm and centre of every 
social circle he entered. 

He was a gentleman of the old school, and he 
literally adorned the gospel ministry. He had a 
lofty ideal of the preacher's calling, and he trans- 
lated his ideal into real life. None of his friends ever 

5 



thought of him as an old man. He was not so many 
years old, but so many years young. He was in- 
terested in life, full of a gracious optimism for people 
and things, courtly, ever thoughtful and considerate 
of all about him. While holding fast to the old 
faiths, and cherishing for himself a piety at once 
simple and sincere, he was broadly tolerant of all 
that is Christian and Catholic in his views of the 
kingdom. While I think the Dutch Church had the 
warmest place in Dr. Terhune's heart, I have never 
thought of him as related to a denomination. He 
always impressed me as a Christian minister, with 
room and love in his heart for all who love Christ. 

His last public act was to read a paper before 
Alpha Delta, the little circle of ministerial brethren 
among whom he was a brother best beloved. After 
reading this paper, in which he gave a graphic ac- 
count of the early Jamestown settlements, he com- 
plained of not feeling well, and asked to be excused. 
On reaching home he was taken ill with an acute 
attack, which in a few days proved fatal. 

His life has been a long, blessed, beautiful and 
well-rounded career. He has done his work well and 
left the world better and happier than he found it. 

In 1856 he was married to Miss Mary Virginia 
Hawes, of Richmond, who still survives him, and who, 
as " Marion Harland," is so well known to the 
literary and journalistic world. She was a tower of 
strength to her husband in all his pastorates, and 
their home life was an idyl. 

A year ago, at their beautiful country place in 
6 



Pompton, they celebrated the golden jubilee of their 
marriage. 

After a career so blessed, a life so symmetrical, 
and a companionship so ideal, the grave can have no 
shadows, and the heart only tears that Christ's hand 
wipes away. 

Newark, N. J. 



By Rev. Joseph R. Duryee, D.D. 

OERMIT one who loved Dr. Terhune for fifty 
years to pay tribute to his character and out- 
line his attainments. 

He was born in New Brunswick, N. J., November 
22, 1830. It does not seem possible that this was his 
birth year, he was so vigorous and his spirit was so 
youthful to the end. The best things in life were his 
rich inheritance. His father, Judge John Terhune, 
of Huguenot ancestry, and for fifty-four years an 
elder in the Presbyterian Church, was a rare man, 
and for generations the family had led in the moral 
and material development of New Jersey. He was 
named for Edward Payson, a saintly Christian leader 
still remembered in the American Church. Few boys 
have had a happier childhood. It was partly spent 
with his grandmother near Princeton. Her house was 
a centre of influence. Drs. Alexander, Hodge, Miller, 
and other professors were her intimate friends, and 

7 



the boy was welcomed at their homes. Members of 
their families were life-long companions. Entering 
Rutgers, he was graduated in the class of 1850 with 
Drs. Elmendorf and Sheperd, Judges Lawrence and 
Ludlow, and others who became equally distinguished. 
His heart was set on becoming a physician and for 
nearly two years he studied medicine. Then he 
obeyed the higher call and consecrated himself to the 
Christian ministry. 

On graduating from the New Brunswick Semi- 
nary he received several calls. He accepted that of 
the Presbyterian Church of Charlotte Court House, 
Va., and in the spring of 1855 began his pastorate. 
It was an ideal charge for any man. The best blood 
of the Old Dominion was in the congregation. In 
1856 he married Miss Mary Virginia Hawes, of Rich- 
mond. The home became as near the ideal as any this 
earth has known — beautiful in its comradeship, benefi- 
cent in its influence. 

In 1858 Dr. Terhune was called to the pastorate 
of the First Reformed Dutch Church, of Newark. 
To decide as he did must have been a singular test 
of faith and courage. The claims of material com- 
fort, intellectual fellowship and family ties on one 
side, on the other a depleted church, in a community 
almost entirely dependent for support on manufact- 
uring interests most of which were then bankrupt. 
But Dr. Terhune was a soldier of the cross and the 
red fighting blood ran too strong in him to resist the 
opportunity that called for heroic self-denial, con- 
straint, toil and trials of faith and patience that 



would for years tax to the utmost every power of 
heart and mind. Few men have possessed as clear 
a vision of life; for him there were no illusions in 
the Newark outlook. He knew that in the modern 
city life, then just beginning, must be fought the 
main battle of Christianity with the powers of evil. 
His commission was to lead, and he accepted the 
detail. 

For eighteen years Dr. Terhune remained at his 
post. Immediately his work began to tell for bless- 
ing, nor was this confined to his parish; the entire 
city felt his presence. While his work in all its 
many parts was of the highest order, the man was 
always greater than his work. Men, women, and 
children instinctively loved him. They brought to 
him their problems, then felt his impression on their 
hearts. And it was abiding. To-day a great com- 
pany scattered throughout the earth thank God for 
what he wrought in them. In 1876 Mrs. Terhune 's 
health demanded a change of scene and climate, and 
without delay Dr. Terhune resigned his Newark 
charge and went abroad. His ministry did not lapse, 
for all the time he labored as chaplain, first in Rome 
and then in Paris, having entire charge of the Ameri- 
can churches there. 

On his return in 1878 he received calls from lead- 
ing churches in Newark, Plainfield, New Haven, and 
Springfield, Mass. The last named he accepted. 
There he remained for five years, honored and loved 
throughout the city. Then came another call. The 
Williamsburg Reformed Church in Brooklyn had 

9 



had a remarkable history. In the centre of a great 
population, with a plant capable of accommodating 
an enormous congregation, it had never fulfilled its 
promise. Unless an unusual man, with rare gifts, not 
merely of eloquence and ordinary leadership but with 
almost divine tact, patience and unselfishness, came 
to save it, the church would disband. Dr. Terhune 
loved the Old Dutch Church as loyally as any man 
who has ever served her, but this call must have taxed 
his sense of proportion. I am sure it was his Master's 
higher call that decided him to go to Williamsburg. 
He had never cared for wealth except for its uses, was 
generous in every direction, and needed all the salary 
he could win. The church was $80,000 in debt, its 
membership was scattered and its attendants were 
divided into antagonistic groups. More than one 
friend urged him to refuse such a sacrifice. What 
the seven years' labor there cost him only God knew. 
He became twenty years older in appearance, and he 
lost much of the splendid vitality that had never 
before failed him. But he left the church united, 
entirely free from debt, and with a promise for the 
future never before so bright. His next charge was 
the Puritan Church, Brooklyn — an active and a 
happy pastorate of four years, terminated by his 
serious illness. 

For the rest of his life Dr. Terhune, while refus- 
ing another pastorate, was a constant laborer. Large 
churches in Chicago and St. Louis called him. In 
the former city he became for nearly a year a stated 
supply, but he knew that his physical strength was 

10 



waning. After leaving Puritan Church he underwent 
a serious surgical operation and for nearly six months 
lay helpless from its effect. Indeed his life was de- 
spaired of. I talked with the surgeon, who told me 
that in his long experience he had " never known a 
patient endure greater or more constant suffering; I 
cannot understand his marvellous self-control. He is 
always bright, always thinking of others and never of 
himself. ' ' It was characteristic. A year abroad was 
needed to complete his recovery. After his return 
Dr. Terhune led an active life. The churches sought 
his help and he was a frequent preacher in New York, 
Newark and elsewhere. More than forty years ago 
he purchased a tract of land on Pompton Lake, N. J. 
It was then a primitive region, to which he was at- 
tracted by the scenery and the opportunity to satisfy 
his special recreation; for from boyhood he was a 
great fisherman. As time and means permitted he 
made " Sunnybank " blossom into rare beauty. 
How he loved this home! There he lived close to 
nature, and the trees, flowers, streams and sky rested 
and refreshed him. Because he was a true child of 
nature, she gave back to him rich treasures that are 
denied to most; a joy in her communion, knowledge 
of her secrets, a vision of God through her revelation. 
There dear friends gathered about him and the ideal 
beauty of a country home was through his inspira- 
tion revealed to some for the first time. 

A year ago Dr. and Mrs. Terhune celebrated their 
golden wedding. After a day of loving congrat- 
ulations from friends almost innumerable who in 

11 



body or in spirit gathered about them, they took their 
wedding journey in their carriage, driving horses 
born on their place, through the country of his boy- 
hood and elsewhere. The refreshment of this fort- 
night of perfect happiness lingered on for all the re- 
maining days of earth. 

More than forty years ago, while a pastor in 
Newark, Dr. Terhune united with Alpha Delta, an 
association limited to twelve active members, meet- 
ing monthly at their homes. With its founders in 
1855, among whom were Drs. G. "W. Bethune, Robert 
Davidson, A. R. Van Nest, A. B. Van Zandt and 
others, he was intimate. After the death of Dr. 
Chambers he became the senior member, and in 1900 
prepared its history. In the brief studies of the 
character of nearly two score friends, there is re- 
vealed the secret of his power. He possessed the 
genius of friendship as few have done. 

Twelve days before the end came he read to Alpha 
Delta a paper prepared at our request, " The Story 
of the Jamestown, Virginia, Settlement and the 
James River Estates." Every monograph of Dr. 
Terhune had its special value, but into this last he 
poured the memories of happy years, and an esti- 
mate of values in human life, as never before. All 
through there ran that subtle charm of style, tender 
pathos and gentle humor of which he was master. 
And there was added a peculiar quality impossible 
to define. I think we all felt that unconsciously he 
had pictured himself, always seeing, knowing, loving 
and inspiring the best in men. Not feeling well, 

12 



he left us suddenly. There was no good-by. Per- 
haps it is better so ! But Alpha Delta can never be 
the same to us here. 

After twelve days of fever and pain he fell asleep, 
to awaken in the Father's House, to the vision of that 
One he loved, and with Him the children who had 
passed before. 

More than once I have been asked to describe the 
distinctive characteristics of admirable men, and have 
named them " many-sided," and " standing four 
square." But as I think of Dr. Terhune the trite 
phrases seem insufficient. Nor is it easy to differen- 
tiate his character. He was a strong man physically, 
intellectually and morally. As few of his generation, 
he held his course through a long life of trial con- 
sistently. He had a definite hatred of sin and when 
duty called, never hesitated to particularize the evil 
of which men were guilty. But in this he always 
aimed to discover to such the good they were capable 
of attaining. His fearless courage was balanced 
by the finest gentleness. His presence was gracious 
and the charm of perfect manners was natural in 
him. Instinctively men looked up to him and re- 
membered his sayings. Dr. Terhune was a diligent 
man; all his life he was a student. He loved his 
books intelligently. His literary experience was un- 
usual in its range and depth. Even more than books 
he studied men; their problems were his greatest in- 
terest. He thought these out so wisely and sympa- 
thetically that he seemed to possess the prophet's 
vision. 

13 



Above all he studied the Word of God. It was 
always to him a living Word, and its messages were 
personal. He found the key to the enigmas of life in 
the Gospel of the Son of God. To reveal to seekers 
after truth this living Word was his highest happiness. 
How he loved to preach the Gospel! In the pulpit 
Dr. Terhune was earnest, clear, direct, and simple. 
His teachers had been rare men in the school of elo- 
quence that was the glory of America fifty years ago. 
On occasion he was equal to the best of these. As I re- 
call his presence in his Newark church I seem now to 
hear his voice ring out words that moved men to 
purer thinking, nobler living, and greater loyalty to 
the Master he loved. As a pastor he was devoted 
to every interest of his people; in their homes no 
other guest was so welcome. These, and other traits 
I could name, found their spring in as tender a heart 
as ever beat ; constantly he carried there all God gave 
him to love. Next to the members of his family I 
think his ministerial brethren realized most this su- 
preme value in their friend. They knew he loved 
them as few men could. I have never heard him 
speak an unkind word of a clergyman. His presence 
never failed to hearten and stimulate them in their 
work. So he honored his manhood and his calling. 
He has left behind not only a stainless name, but 
living and blessed power. Men who knew and be- 
lieved in him cannot doubt that the gift of God is 
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, and that 
their friend has now entered into his inheritance. 



14 



"THE LOWER JAMES" 

pTBOUT three years ago, on a visit to tide- 
^— *• water, Virginia, and in anticipation of the 
commemoration now in progress, I drove over 
from Williamsburg, the former capital of the 
Old Dominion, to renew my recollections of 
Jamestown. The ivy-covered porch and tower 
of the old church had long been familiar to me 
by repeated excursions up and down the James 
River, but not until this occasion had I cared 
to visit the historic ground. The reason of 
this was that until very recently there was 
absolutely nothing to be seen by closer ex- 
amination that could not be observed from the 
deck of the passing steamer. A marshy low- 
ground, over which at high tide the water 
backed, a few ancient crooked and gnarled 
trees, an uninviting aspect as of a forsaken 
and decayed settlement, discouraged nearer 
acquaintanceship. 

The visit to which I now refer, however, gave 
opportunity for reproduction to my mind of 
all that was interesting in this, the first point 

15 



of occupation by English colonists upon our 
American shores. A levee had been built upon 
the water front, and the marshy lowgrounds 
were drained. Much of the underbrush had 
been removed, and the debris of fallen walls 
and roof that had been lying undisturbed for 
almost two centuries had been cleared from 
the chancel and nave of the now spectral 
church. The original lines of foundation had 
been discovered, temporary wooden walls had 
been erected, and a roof made to cover the 
entire enclosure, affording a fair presentation 
of plan and dimensions in the days that had 
made it memorable. There had been an at- 
tempt, also, to define the courses of streets 
and the areas of buildings — the early govern- 
ment house, in which the first magistrates of 
the colony held their courts and the people 
their general assemblies, the brick founda- 
tions of store-houses and dwellings until now 
so hidden that the surface appeared to be a 
succession of mounds or earthworks. 

I was glad that my visit should occur at the 
time it did, when nothing of the projected 
restoration had as yet been attempted. Now, 
gaudy structures of various forms — machin- 
ery, art, general exhibition, bazar, office, re- 

16 






fectory — all bearing the impress of up-to-date 
enterprise and achievement, obscure what to 
the delver in the antiquities of our land, and 
to enthusiasts for heroism is alone worthy 
to be revealed. For here, for our country, be- 
gins the trail of civilization blazoned from 
this point onward by names and characters 
which are among the most memorable in our 
annals. 

The history of that period — culminating in 
volume as the commemoration has drawn near 
— is so copious and obtrusive it seems pre- 
sumptuous in one to attempt other than the 
recapitulation of incidents with which, from 
childhood, you have all been familiar. James- 
town and Plymouth Rock are the starting 
points in American history for nearly all of 
us — if not by direct lineal connection, yet by 
an association extended through many genera- 
tions. " For here " at Jamestown — I quote 
from the narrative of one whom State affec- 
tion and pride of ancestry have brought into 
quick touch with the time, the events, and the 
persons of that day — " here on May 13, 1607, 
was set the first rootlet of English dominion 
in the vast Virginia plantation that was to 

17 



outlive pestilence and famine and savage vio- 
lence. Every foot of soil has been soaked in 
blood since Smith and his colony took posses- 
sion of the goodly land in the name of God 
and King James. As far as eye can reach, the 
level tract is enwrapped with historic and ro- 
mantic associations." 

" Here," said Gov. Henry A. Wise, speak- 
ing of Jamestown, " the old world first met 
the new. Here the white man first met the 
red for settlement and civilization. Here the 
white man wielded the axe to cut the first 
tree for the first log cabin. Here the first log 
cabin was built for the first village. Here the 
first village rose to the first State Capital. 
Here was the first Capital of our Empire of 
States — here was the very foundation of a 
nation of freemen, which has stretched its 
dominion and its millions across the continent 
to the shores of another ocean." " And it is 
here," adds President Tyler, of William and 
Mary, " that the new world witnessed the first 
trial by jury, the first English church, the first 
English marriage, and its first legislative 
assembly." 

" De la Warr found upon the marshy penin- 
sula, in 1610, a church twenty-four feet broad 

18 



by sixty long." I quote from another chroni- 
cler: " The site was the same as that occu- 
pied by the < old rotten tent ' under which 
the first Protestant service in America was 
held. Indeed, the historic church was not the 
first, but most likely the third on that ground. 
The first was made by ' hanging up an old sail, 
fastening it to three or four trees, seats of 
logs, and a bar of wood between two trees 
served for a pulpit.' ' The next,' so says 
Smith, was ' like a barn set upon crochets.' 
The third was the one of which the old tower 
still stands. During De la Warr's administra- 
tion the sanctuary was decorated on Sunday 
with flowers and evergreens, and opened for 
afternoon service during the week. There 
were a baptismal font, a tall pulpit, a chancel 
of red cedar, and in the tower two bells. These 
rang a joyous peal in the April of 1613, when 
John Rolfe and Pocahontas knelt in the aisle 
for the nuptial benediction." 

Of the original structure all that now re- 
mains is " the tower roofing the vestibule." 
The ivy was growing in festoons and wreath- 
ing the sides as if to hide the defacements 
made by the vandal hammers of relic hunters, 
and crimson-colored vines lovingly clasped the 

19 



stones on which I sat that cloudless Indian- 
summer day recalling the scene when, through 
that archway, amid throngs of dusky and 
gaudily decorated savages and a few English 
colonists, " the lady Rebecca and her pale- 
faced bridegroom passed arm in arm." There 
at that font Pocahontas, before this a convert 
to Christianity, received the water of baptism 
and her new name. The dead of six genera- 
tions slept beneath those heaving mounds at 
our feet — names familiar to every Virginian, 
and a majority of them repeated since in fam- 
ily Bibles and in the proudest annals of the 
State — the Sherwoods, the Blairs, the Harri- 
sons, Lady Frances Berkeley, the accomplished 
wife of the haughty and arrogant governor 
who, upon her death, abandoned his office and 
returned to the mother country. 

The assertion that the new colony of Vir- 
ginia was a Botany Bay for English convicts 
and penniless adventurers is a libel upon the 
brave men, a number of them of noble birth, 
others of attainments of means and education. 
In every worthy enterprise some of the lower 
element will take advantage of the oppor- 
tunity such chances afford them — as in the 
exodus of '49 from the Eastern States to Cali- 

20 



fornia. London in 1607 had been greatly 
stirred by the voyages of Sir Francis Drake, 
and stories of untold mines of gold in the 
Western land. Multitudes from England and 
Scotland and Ireland swelled the population 
of the great city, and among them many ad- 
venturers who would gladly have made their 
way to the new world had they been able to 
emigrate. Later, some of these classes did 
come. Their record is not, however, to be 
found upon the list of those to whom letters 
patent were issued by King James for the col- 
onization of Virginia. The two previous fate- 
ful voyages of Raleigh to the coast and islands 
of North Carolina had quenched, to a degree, 
the ardor of eager adventurers. The stability 
of the colony and its rapid extension prove 
that the inferior material was inconsiderable 
and soon sank out of sight. " John Smith, the 
conqueror of kings, walked these shores and 
took counsel with brave, loyal George Percy. 
Hereabouts he welcomed Pocahontas and her 
train of forest maidens, and withstood to their 
teeth Wingfield and Ratcliffe and Archer " 
and their thievish, murderous crew. Here Sir 
Thomas Dale negotiated the marriage of Pow- 
hatan's daughter with worthy John Rolfe. I 

21 



have already spoken of Lord De la Warr, the 
early governor of the colony. Others not less 
noteworthy established and maintained divine 
worship, and from its very beginning stamped 
upon the settlement the character which Vir- 
ginia has always maintained in the intellec- 
tual and religious life of the nation. 

Under Smith's presidency, Jamestown be- 
came a village of nearly five hundred inhabi- 
tants, with twenty-four cannon and abundant 
store of muskets. Under his administration, 
as I have already intimated, the church took 
the place of the log hut in which divine service 
had been held. The surrounding country, rich 
in its bottom lands to this day, was in part 
tilled, but the main support of the colony, in 
addition to stores brought by succeeding ves- 
sels from the mother country, was the supply 
brought in by Indians of Powhatan's tribe and 
the Potomac's corn, fish, and game. 

It is only in connection with the support 
thus rendered, and which at times became ab- 
solutely essential to the life of the colony, that 
I make further reference to Pocahontas — for 
upon this Indian girl the fate not of Smith 
alone but of the entire Virginia settlement 
became at once dependent. 

22 



From the "Journal of American History" 
I quote: " Whether or not the tradition of the 
rescue of the gallant John Smith, as he was 
about to be slain by her father's tribe, is true 
does not in the least diminish the nobility and 
the beauty of this Indian maid. That she was 
the power behind the throne is beyond all 
doubt, and to her must be given the credit for 
the influence that several times saved the ab- 
solute extermination of the English-speaking 
settlement which to-day claims the attention 
of the world as the Cradle of the Republic." 

You are familiar to weariness with the story 
just referred to — the rescue of Smith, who had 
fallen into an ambush of three hundred of 
Powhatan's warriors. Certain facts that re- 
deem it from the realm of mere romance, how- 
ever, deserve to be stated, and they shall be 
given from Smith's own account as written 
out for the Queen Consort, and preserved in 
the papers of the reign of James I. 

" Having feasted him after their best bar- 
barous manner they could, a long consultation 
was held, but the conclusion was, two great 
stones were brought before Powhatan, then as 
many as could layd hands on him, dragged him 
to them, and thereon layd his head, and being 

23 



ready to dash out his brains, Pocahontas, the 
king's dearest daughter, when no entreaty 
could prevail, got his head in her arms, and 
layd her own upon his to save him from death, 
whereat the emperor was contented he should 
live to make him hatchets, and her bells, beads, 
and copper." 

We are not to suppose that it was the sud- 
den caprice of a spoiled child that had cast 
her between the club and the head embraced 
in her arms. She had pleaded for him before 
the hour set for the trial. In a captivity that 
had many opportunities of familiar discourse 
with those who had kept him, the knightly 
soldier had made her his friend. Although 
but twelve or thirteen years old at the time, 
the story here told of her influence and of the 
subsequent interpositions for the colonists 
prove her to have been advanced mentally be- 
yond her years, and to have possessed a pe- 
culiar power over her grim but indulgent 
father. 

The influence of the six weeks in which 
Smith lived in constant association with his 
despotic host, and the little brunette he was 
ordered to amuse, and the subsequent intimacy 
to which it led, upon her character and career 

24 



can hardly be exaggerated. The supposed ar- 
tificer selected to fashion tinkling ornaments 
to please her fancy was soldier, traveler, 
dramatist, historian, and diplomatist. He 
acquired the Indian tongue, and taught his to 
Pocahontas. It is reasonable to suppose that 
she drew from him the earliest aspirations 
that led to her conversion to Christianity. 
" What," he asks of his fellow adventurers in 
the new world, " can a man with faith in reli- 
gion do more agreeable to God than to seek 
to convert these poor savages to Christ and 
humanity? " 

In his "General History," Smith recapitu- 
lates what he had written to the Queen Con- 
sort in 1616, namely, that Pocahontas "not 
only hazarded the beating out her own brains 
to save mine, but so prevailed with her father 
that I was safely conducted to Jamestown." 

Starvation was staring the Jamestown set- 
tlers in the face when, one winter day, a train 
of red men emerged from the forest and ap- 
proached the fort. A little in advance of the 
" Indian file " was a lithe figure, wrapped in a 
robe of doeskin, lined and edged with pigeon 
down. As a king's daughter, she wore a white 
heron's feather in her dark hair; wrists and 

25 



ankles were banded with coral. A queen in 
miniature, she came with gifts of corn and 
game in quantities that quieted the rising 
panic. " Every once in four or five days," the 
" wild train thus laden, visited the settle- 
ment," until the peril of famine was past. 

Such interpositions by Pocahontas in behalf 
of the white settlers, her frequent ambassages 
from her father to Jamestown, her warning 
at the risk of her own life to Smith and his 
company when, at the order of King James, 
Powhatan was crowned — by which warning 
they narrowly escaped massacre — evince how 
closely the welfare of this early colony and of 
the village of Jamestown is connected with 
the agency of this stripling maiden, who later 
was received at the Court of St. James as the 
first American princess. 

The late Hon. William Wirt Henry, Presi- 
dent of the Historical Society of America, 
whose " Life and Letters of Patrick Henry," 
his grandfather, rank him among the most ac- 
complished historiographers of our country, 
bears the same testimony to Pocahontas and 
her inestimable value to the Jamestown col- 
ony. 

"... Pocahontas, who, born the daughter 
26 



of a savage king, was endowed with all the 
graces which become a Christian princess; 
who was the first of her people to embrace 
Christianity, and to unite in marriage with 
the English race; who, like a guardian angel, 
watched over and preserved the infant colony 
which has developed into a great people, 
among whom her descendants have ever been 
conspicuous for true nobility; and whose name 
will be honored while this great people occupy 
the land upon which she so signally aided in 
establishing them." 

But to return to the history of Jamestown 
from this point: Not many months after the 
last incident narrated, Smith met with an ac- 
cident that obliged him to return to England 
for surgical treatment. No sooner," the his- 
tory goes on to say, " had the salvages under- 
stood that Smith was gone, but they all re- 
volted and did spoil and murther all they en- 
countered." 

Katcliffe, Smith's successor, visited Pow- 
hatan with " thirtie others as careless as him- 
self " and was killed with all his party except 
one man who escaped, and a boy, whose life 
Pocahontas saved. 

Jamestown was rehabilitated by Lord De la 
27 



Warr, he building upon the foundation laid 
by Smith's travail of soul and body. De la 
Warr was succeeded by Sir Thomas Dale — " a 
man of great knowledge in divinity, and of 
good conscience in all things." In Sir Thomas 
Dale's time we read that his new town, 
Jamestown, " was a noble city," with its " two 
rows of houses of framed timber, some of them 
two stories and a garret higher, three large 
storehouses joined together in length," and 
the " strong impalement " that encompassed 
all. 

Such was the state of Jamestown, increas- 
ing in size and importance until the governor- 
ship of Sir William Berkeley, seventy years 
after its foundation. In 1666, just one hundred 
and ten years before the Declaration of Ameri- 
can Independence, it passed forever from 
sight. The rebellion of Nathaniel Bacon 
against the policy of Berkeley — a rebellion 
justified by the vacillations of the governor — 
brought on a conflict in which Jamestown was 
burned to the ground. The rude line of forti- 
fications over which the contending parties 
struggled may yet be plainly discerned; but 
save these and the few relics to which I have 
referred, the very site of Jamestown, or any 

28 



evidence that it ever existed, is entirely ob- 
literated. 

Seven miles back from the river is the 
ancient slumberous city of Williamsburg. 
Thither, upon the demolition of Jamestown, 
Sir Francis Nicholson, then governor — for 
Berkeley had sailed back to England — removed 
the seat of government. The very name is 
significant of a settlement considerably later 
than that of Jamestown, for as the latter bore 
the name of the reigning monarch under whose 
patent it was founded, so Williamsburg and 
its venerable college — second in age only to 
Harvard — honor the then reigning house of 
Orange, represented in William and Mary. 
Loyalty to the home government speaks in 
the very lines and titles of its streets; — the 
main thoroughfare still known as Duke of 
Gloucester Street, was conferred in recognition 
of the boy Duke, the heir presumptive to the 
throne then filled by his childless aunt and 
uncle-in-law. Diverging streets were to form 
on one side a capital W; upon the other an 
M — the palace or government house at one 
extreme, the college at the opposite. Of this 
building Sir Christopher Wren was the archi- 
tect. Unfortunately, the original edifice was 

29 



burned in 1705. The Bishop of London was 
the first chancellor. It may be recalled still 
further, in reference to the loyalty already 
alluded to, that, founded under the auspices 
of the Church of England, a provision was in- 
serted in the charter that prayers from the 
English Prayer Book were to be read at the 
opening exercises of each day, and that from 
the first session ever held within its walls to 
this hour the order has never once been 
omitted. The Revolution levied from its halls 
nearly all of its then students; the Civil War 
went further: it left not a single professor or 
student exempt. The venerable President 
Ewell — brother of the Confederate general of 
that name — alone, mindful of the injunction of 
the charter, every day of those four years en- 
tered the sacred desk and read to unresponsive 
walls and benches the psalm and collect for 
the day. 

Referring to this fact and in allusion to the 
sons of this institution that have enriched 
Virginia and, to an extent, the nation, one 
writes: "What a company of august shades 
filled those seats as those words were repeated 
to seemingly empty space! Twenty mem- 
bers of Congress, seventeen State governors, 

30 



two attorney-generals, twelve college profes- 
sors, four signers of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, one chief justice, four Cabinet offi- 
cers, and three Presidents of the United 
States, besides eminent soldiers, men of let- 
ters, and reverend divines, whose names star 
the pages of colonial and commonwealth his- 
tory." 

It was suggested by one or more of the mem- 
bers of Alpha Delta that this hotch-potch 
should make reference to certain memorable 
estates upon the James River — made memor- 
able not more by their wealth and beauty 
than by the worthy men and women who, from 
these homes, wielded an influence upon the 
times we have considered and upon later his- 
tory. 

The distinctive feature of the James River 
plantations to which I refer is that they are 
ancestral family seats, and have continued in 
the original occupation through successive 
generations — certain of them to this date. 
This stability was largely due to the mainte- 
nance of slavery, which permitted the working 
of such vast estates to profit, and thereby 
secured both land and material force from 
fathers to sons. Tuckahoe and Presque Isle, 

31 



of the Randolphs; Wyanoke, Lower and Up- 
per Brandon, of the Harrisons; Westover, of 
the Bryds; Berkeley, of another branch of the 
Harrisons; Shirley, of the Carters, and numer- 
ous others illustrate this fact. 

They were patents from the Crown, and es- 
tablished with an eye to permanence — an in- 
heritance as to sentiment from the ancestral 
homes of old England, whence these original 
settlers came. Such estates rendered neces- 
sary a superior and an inferior class, a condi- 
tion prevalent in England at the time, and 
made possible here by the existence of slavery. 
The plantation, with its provision for the sup- 
port of these dependants, a close corporation, 
holding in itself all essential trades — carpen- 
ters, masons, blacksmiths, weavers, shoemak- 
ers, etc., was adequate to all economic de- 
mands. As a result you find a large majority 
of the eminent men who were called into the 
council of the nation in the early days were 
what were known as " planters," owners of 
large and productive estates, which permitted 
them leisure for study of great themes and to 
acquire the science of government. Patrick 
Henry, from his home at Red Hill, on the Stan- 
ton river; Jefferson from his estate at Mon- 

32 



ticello; Madison from the broad acres of 
Orange; Washington from Mt. Vernon; the 
Harrisons from Berkeley, and many others 
whose names will occur to you. 

Time will permit me to refer to only one or 
two of these colonial estates on the James. 

First: Lower Brandon — named in memory 
of Brandon, England — situated on the left 
bank of the James as one sails up the river 
from Norfolk, sixty miles from that city, and 
ninety from Richmond. The original grant 
was made to John Martin. " Martin's Bran- 
don " is still the title of the old church, in 
which are used the chalice and patin presented 
by John Westhrope. The tomb of Elizabeth 
Westhrope, near by, bears the date of 1649. 

The estate soon became the property of 
Nathanael Harrison, and later of his son, 
Benjamin Harrison — the ancestor of both 
the Presidents Harrison — the roommate of 
Thomas Jefferson at William and Mary Col- 
lege — and remains to this day in the Harrison 
family. 

The house has a frontage of 210 feet, the 
wings being joined by covered corridors to 
the main building. Like all the old mansions 
on the James, Brandon is double-fronted. The 

33 



carriage drive leads up to what would be 
called the back door; the other main entrance 
faces the river. Time does not permit me to 
describe the inner arrangement of this house, 
rich in the treasures of art, portraits of 
the great gentlemen and dames of successive 
generations. Twice has war ravaged it — in 
the Revolution, when Benedict Arnold made 
havoc of all that was most lovely and valuable 
within and without its doors — and again in 
the Civil War, when by malicious hands the 
renowned collection of family portraits, by Sir 
Godfrey Kneller, were torn from their frames, 
every windowpane shattered — even those in- 
scribed with the autographs of J. K. Pauld- 
ing, John Tyler, Millard Fillmore (then Presi- 
dent), Edward Everett, his Secretary of State, 
and others of the Cabinet. Not a habitable 
building except the manor house was left 
standing. The savagery would have gone to 
the extreme had not a telegram from Mr. Lin- 
coln, who indirectly learned of the devasta- 
tion, demanded its instant cessation. For 
Brandon, from the day of Jefferson, who was 
a frequent guest, and who had been chief ad- 
viser in the construction of the house, was the 
frequent retreat of the high officials at Wash- 

34 



ington — of Presidents and their cabinets. At 
one time, upon a day's forewarning, Mr. Fill- 
more, his entire cabinet, and a party compris- 
ing thirty, quartered themselves upon the gra- 
cious hostess, whose impulse of hospitality, 
apparently, no numbers could daunt. 

In the days in which I recall Brandon, it was, 
as it had always been, the home of this 
princely hospitality. At that time Mrs. Isa- 
bella Harrison, widow of George Evelyn Har- 
rison, one of the most elegant of Virginia 
dames, and her accomplished daughter wel- 
comed to their board the throng of visitors 
that came to them week by week and day by 
day. " Eminent statesmen of this country, 
men and women of rank from abroad, friends 
and strangers, found open house in the fine 
old Virginia home. The plantation included 
an area of seven thousand acres, fourteen hun- 
dred of which were in profitable cultivation. 
A neat hospital for the sick and infirm, the 
services of a regular physician, the ministry 
of a salaried chaplain, and, most of all, the 
parental care of the owners, made of the fam- 
ily and farm servants a contented and happy 
peasantry." 

May I quote from the description of one who 
35 



visited Brandon ten years ago? The author 
says: "With a sigh of grateful relief I turn 
to Brandon as I saw it on a mid-May day when 
the story of the invasion was thirty years old. 
Lawn and garden separated the mansion from 
the river. Trees, lopped and shivered by bul- 
lets and scorched by fire, were swathed with 
ivy; honeysuckles rioted in tropical luxuriance 
over bole and bough, and were pruned daily 
lest they should strangle rose trees that were 
full of buds. 

" Every square has its story; alley and plot, 
tree and shrub, are beaded with hallowed 
associations. Except for the dents of bullets 
in the stanch walls, the exterior tells nothing 
of the fiery blast and rain that nearly wrought 
ruin to the whole edifice. Out-buildings and 
enclosures have been renewed, peace and 
promise of plenty rejoice on every side." 

Since that record both of the queenly women 
who so lavishly dispensed the hospitality of 
Brandon have passed from the earth. The 
present occupant is the widow of the son of 
the house who died many years ago. Prob- 
ably from lack of means and the disorganized 
system of labor, the former state of prosper- 
ous elegance is to a degree lacking, and it is 

36 



doubtful if any of the name — of the direct 
line — will be able to restore to it its old-time 
attractiveness. 

It is due to those who may never have had 
the opportunity to enjoy for themselves Vir- 
ginian hospitality of that olden time to give it 
a somewhat appreciable definition. The hos- 
pitality that invites a guest to your home to 
partake of a meal with you, or to prolong his 
stay for several days, does not touch the idea 
of hospitality as recognized in the period and 
place to which I refer. That was entirely 
independent of relationship, friendship, or 
even previous acquaintance. It covered the 
thought expressed in the words: "I was a 
STEANGER, and ye took me in " — all the more 
that the guest was a stranger, and that his 
need gave his host the opportunity to exercise 
the grace of generosity. The feature of obli- 
gation, in any respect, would have checked the 
spontaneity that alone rendered hospitality a 
virtue. 

Hence the Plantation Home was one whose 
doors were ever open, and the table of which 
was daily prepared with an eye to a number 
beyond its steady occupants. This established 
condition of things scarcely admitted of sur- 

37 



prise. The village or country hotel accommo- 
dations were meagre — the more inadequate 
because the hospitable instincts of the neigh- 
borhood rendered provision in this form un- 
profitable. I recall with gratitude occasions 
on which, in travel, I had gone to such houses 
of entertainment to spend a night or to take a 
meal, when, at the immediate interference of 
a family or the head thereof, I was not per- 
mitted to do this. I had never been in that 
locality before; my name or errand was not 
known. I was a STRANGER of respectable 
mien — that was sufficient. To decline would 
be deemed a discourtesy. It was esteemed a 
duty, a privilege to be on the lookout for 
strangers arriving in the hamlet or in the sta- 
tion. I could recount almost numberless in- 
stances in which not only individuals, but 
whole families or companions travelling to- 
gether were thus claimed, almost seized upon, 
and brought to these generous plantation 
homes. Once within the enclosure, everything 
the home could afford was freely at the guests' 
disposition. Yet there was no labored effort 
on the part of hosts to entertain, or sensible 
restriction of the freedom of the guests. The 
conduct of the home and the pursuits of its 

38 



various members were unimpeded. The vis- 
itor was permitted to feel that his presence 
entailed no burdening responsibility — the per- 
fection of hospitality. 

So large-hearted, apparently, was this wel- 
come, it used to be said by those who could 
not appreciate the motive, that the occasion 
of it was in the isolation of these plantation 
homes; that the entertainment of sojourners 
was sought because it brought the hosts into 
touch with the outside world, gave them op- 
portunities, otherwise denied them, of en- 
larged acquaintance and intelligence. The 
truth is it was the spirit or habit of the Eng- 
lish home, whence all such sentiments and 
practices were drawn — the days when the 
manor house was open hall, and when there 
was small provision of any other character. 
You will recall references to this in English 
books — in Dickens's descriptions of the Pick- 
wick party at old WardelFs; of the " poor re- 
lations " always provided for at the Squire's 
board. 

Do you suggest that such open-heartedness 
and open-handedness might admit of imposi- 
tion? That would be possible, but it seldom 
occurred, and if, at distant intervals, it did 

39 



happen, the generous impulse could stand 
it. Honor respects honor. As the unlocked 
door to the treasure renders each one a 
guard of the treasure, this trust seldom suf- 
fered abuse. 

Such was the beautiful hospitality of Vir- 
ginia in the days of her larger means and 
capabilities. I offer this wreath of rosemary 
— for remembrance — to the honor and kind- 
ness of those who have so often made their 
homes and facilities as my very own. 

Westover: With reference to Westover, 
beautiful for situation beyond all the other 
river plantations, it is difficult for me to speak 
as the mere narrator. Associated as it is in my 
remembrance with so much that was lovely 
in companionship, a hospitality that has for 
years opened its doors to me and assured me 
of a gracious welcome, it is difficult for me to 
depict it save in colors that will probably 
appear intense to others. Because of peculiar 
conditions, Westover, beyond any other Vir- 
ginia home of which I know, has been able to 
preserve intact a fidelity to the old regime. 
What that phrase — " the old regime " — in- 
cludes, can be appreciated by those only who 
have known the Virginia plantation life in 

40 



times preceding the Civil War. The planter 
best expressed it when he spoke of the " city " 
as a " community of shopkeepers," and the 
plantation as the " home." It included all that 
went to make up an elegant and dignified so- 
cial condition, abundance in means and conse- 
quent provisions — often to lavishness — the 
leisure to entertain, which adequate and thor- 
oughly trained domestic service alone per- 
mits; cultivation which the reading of the best 
classical literature affords, etc. This created 
a community independent of anything fac- 
titious, and assured refinement in tone and 
manner. Thus in Virginia, preceding the war, 
there was a greater proportion of college-bred 
men to the number of the population than in 
Massachusetts. 

Yet with respect to proprietorship, West- 
over, perhaps, has been less constant to family 
line than any other of the homes upon the 
James that have been named, from reasons 
that will appear presently. 

The location of the Westover residence is, 
I think, unequalled by any other home upon 
the river. The house — upon an elevated pla- 
teau — faces directly on the James at a point 
where the stream, tawny as the Tiber, is the 

41 



broadest — about two miles in width. The 
lawn, of twenty acres or more, is a gradual 
slope to the water's edge, the higher portion 
crowned with lofty and widely branching 
tulip-poplars and oaks of a century's growth. 
Clumps of elms and firs afford shelter from 
the wind or too ardent rays of the sun, and 
invite to long siestas beneath their shade. 
The house has a frontage — if I am right in my 
recollection — of 330 feet, about two-thirds of 
which distance is occupied by the main man- 
sion, to which are attached two extensive 
wings. The tulip-poplar on the left of the 
front door is a monarch whose life extends 
back, probably, to the time of the earliest oc- 
cupation of the ancestral home. 

A great hall cuts the house in two. The 
twisted balustrades of the stairs at the back 
are of solid mahogany; all the lofty rooms are 
wainscoated to the ceiling. Over the drawing- 
room mantel the most notable of the proprie- 
tors had a mirror built into the wall and 
framed in white Italian marble wrought into 
grapes, leaves, and tendrils, at a cost of five 
hundred pounds. The troops in occupation dur- 
ing the Civil War shivered the mirror and beat 
the sides of the frame to pieces, leaving the 

42 



plainer setting at bottom and top compara- 
tively unharmed. 

The Proprietors of Westover: The plan- 
tation of Westover finds a place in the annals 
of colonial history as early as 1622. The orig- 
inal grant was made to Sir John Paulet. 
Theoderic Bland was the next owner — an Eng- 
lishman by birth who emigrated to Virginia 
in 1654. He was one of the king's council in 
Virginia, established himself at Westover, 
gave ten acres of land, a courthouse, and a 
prison to the county, and built a church for 
the parish upon his own plantation. His body 
was interred beneath the floor of the church, 
and the name upon the slab that covers his 
grave is still entirely legible, although the 
building was long ago removed and shrubbery 
and earth conceal its original site. 

The family, however, that made Westover 
notable, and to whom its later glory apper- 
tains, was that of the Byrds, who for three 
successive generations — from 1674 to 1814 — 
made it their residence and maintained it in 
almost princely state. I pass over the earliest 
and latest occupants — of this direct connec- 
tion — to dwell for a little while upon the sec- 
ond of the name under whose rule — for that 

43 



is the appropriate word — Westover attained 
its greatest celebrity. William Evelyn Byrd 
succeeded to the estate upon the death of his 
father in 1704. The father had built a house 
in 1690. Upon his accession the son erected 
the present edifice which, in the main, appears 
to-day as at the time of its completion. The 
dwelling, of English brick, consisted of one 
large central house, connected by corridors 
with smaller wings — as I have already indi- 
cated. From the spacious cellars to the cap- 
ping of the roof the impression is of massive 
solidity. The sloping lawn was defended 
against the wash of the current by a river 
wall of masonry extending along its entire 
front. At regular intervals buttresses, capped 
with stone, supported life-size statues. Gar- 
dens, fences, servants' quarters, and conser- 
vatories gave to the site the appearance of an 
English manor home. The estate is described 
as " a principality," and was maintained by a 
large fortune, which included valuable landed 
property in the neighborhood of London. 
Within this palatial abode were collected the 
treasures brought from England and the Con- 
tinent. Among the pictures were the por- 
traits now preserved at Lower and Upper 

44 



Brandon. They were removed to these houses 
when Westover passed out of the Byrd family. 
Time would fail me to speak of these. They 
were the work of the most renowned portrait 
painters of that and the preceding age. 

The proprietor of this grand home was in 
every way fitted to adorn the sphere in which 
he moved. Strikingly handsome in person, 
patrician in carriage, in intellect and learn- 
ing the peer of the best civilians of his day, 
he was competent to fill every sphere he was 
called to occupy in the colony. Upon his re- 
turn from England, whither he had been sent 
to be educated, and where he had mingled with 
the best society of the time, he had been called 
to the bar in the Middle Temple, had studied 
for some time in the Low Countries, had visited 
the Court of France, and was chosen Fellow 
of the Royal Society. " Thus," as his epitaph 
reads, " eminently fitted for the service and 
ornament of his country, he was made receiver- 
general of his Majesty's revenues here; was 
thrice appointed public agent to the Court and 
Ministry of England; and being thirty-seven 
years a member, at last became President of 
the council of this colony." 

One historian says of him: "A vast fortune 
45 



enabled him to live in a style of hospitable 
splendor before unknown in Virginia. His ex- 
tensive learning was improved by a keen ob- 
servation, and ripened by acquaintance and 
correspondence with the wits and noblemen 
of his day in England. His writings are among 
the most valuable that have descended from 
his era." 

And another historian says: "His path 
through life was a path of roses. He had 
wealth, culture, the best private library in 
America, social consideration, and hosts of 
friends; and when he went to sleep under his 
monument in the garden at Westover, he left 
behind him not only the reputation of a good 
citizen, but that of the great Virginia wit and 
author of the century." 

In my country home is the bound volume of 
the " Westover Manuscripts " from the pen of 
this man — largely a journal of the life of those 
days, of his extensive journeyings through the 
wilds of his native State, and of his founding 
the cities of Richmond and Petersburg. It 
was in manuscript form as prepared by his 
secretary — at his dictation — preserved at 
Brandon after his death, and did not come into 
light until after the Civil War, when an edi- 

46 



tion of it was printed in Richmond, Va. 
About two years ago, Doubleday & Page, of 
New York, published an illustrated edition of 
the manuscripts. At the time of that issue 
I was at Westover, when an amusing incident 
occurred. The present hostess of Westover, 
a dear friend, brought me a letter from an 
eminent literary critic of a New York journal 
— whose name I suppress — addressed to " Will- 
iam Evelyn Byrd, Westover, Va.," which had 
arrived by that morning's mail, asking him 
to furnish certain information in regard to 
the Westover manuscripts. As Colonel Byrd 
had been in his grave one hundred and sixty 
years, the letter of inquiry was somewhat diffi- 
cult of delivery. It would seem impossible 
that a literary critic, whose writings had long 
been before the New York public, should have 
been caught napping over a period of more 
than a century and a half. 

Yet this is scarcely more remarkable than 
the assertion so frequently printed that the 
Randolphs of Virginia, and certain other 
named families, are the lineal descendants of 
Captain John Smith and Pocahontas. As 
Captain John Smith never married Pocahontas 
or any other woman, the suggestion is rather 

47 



equivocal. The Randolphs are the descendants 
of Thomas Rolfe, the son of John Rolfe and 
Pocahontas, born at Varina, Rolfe's planta- 
tion on the James. 

You are all familiar with the romance of 
Evelyn Byrd: her love for Lord Peterborough, 
the refusal of the stern father — who with all 
his virtues was a good deal of a tyrant in his 
way — her broken heart, rapid decline, and 
early death; and the legend of the appearance 
of her ghost on occasions in her bedchamber, 
upon the staircase, and upon the grounds in 
and near the churchyard. The story is very 
"fetching" with those who relish the "crawls" 
at the repetition of the unearthly. As I have 
slept undisturbed in the same bedchamber, and 
prowled around the grounds in the witching 
hours without being rewarded by a vision of 
the fairest of Virginia maidens, I may be per- 
mitted to be incredulous rather than be com- 
pelled to admit that my personal charms have 
never been sufficiently attractive to invite her 
visible approach. 

On my last visit to Westover — when other 
guests were occupying the bedroom usually 
assigned to me — my kind hostess, with a show 
of concern, asked if I would feel any reluc- 

48 



tance to sleeping in the room in which the last 
of the trio of William Byrds, in 1777, in a fit 
of desperation, had taken his life. As I have 
always been of inquiring mind with regard to 
apparitions, and as tradition asserted that 
this spook, also, on occasion, honored visitors, 
I readily accepted, but without reward. 

With the death of the widow of the third 
William, Westover passed out of the direct 
line of the Byrd family. The last of the trio 
had been a spendthrift and gambler. The 
wife survived him thirty-seven years, dying 
in 1814. Westover was then sold, passing 
through many hands in the next half century, 
remaining longest in the Selden family, who 
occupied it for thirty years. During the Civil 
War it suffered severely in common with most 
James Kiver plantations. At the conclusion 
of the war it was bought by Major A. H. 
Drewry, the hero of Drewry's Bluff, a true gen- 
tleman of the old school. The hospitality at 
W T estover in Major Drewry's days might vie 
with that of any plantation in the palmiest 
years of Virginia's commercial and social 
prosperity. Everything that the house con- 
tained or that could be furnished by the place 
— horses for riding and driving, boats upon the 

49 



river, and in the bayous for hunting, dogs and 
guns and guides to accompany the sportsman 
— all were freely put at the disposition of the 
guests. The table was lavishly provided with 
whatever viands the plantation could pro- 
duce — poultry, game — from the wild turkeys 
and canvasback ducks that found their feeding 
places, the one in the pine forests, the other in 
the marshes and inlets of the river — James 
River shad and terrapin — to the partridges 
and English snipe, with which the lowgrounds 
abounded, as well as with whatever of luxury 
the city markets could supply. 

By the marriage of Major Drewry to Miss 
Harrison, a member of a collateral branch of 
the ancient race, Westover was again " back 
in the family." Many of the ravages of the 
war had disappeared. The broad acres were 
in clean and thrifty cultivation. Upon one of 
my visits there in the autumn I saw two fields 
of springing wheat — the one one hundred 
acres, the other eighty; three hundred acres 
redeemed from the marsh covered with the cut 
and shocked corn, and stretches of tobacco 
lands, from which a heavy crop had just been 
gathered. The spirit of the former days had 
returned. 

50 



At the death of Major Drewry — about seven 
years ago — his widow, childless, and without 
others to share the care of so vast an estate, 
sold it to its present owner, Mr. William Mc- 
Creary Kamsey, a native of Pennsylvania, but 
at the time of the purchase, residing in Cali- 
fornia. Mrs. Ramsey is of a collateral branch 
of the Byrd family. To possess Westover had 
been her ambition from her childhood, which 
she had spent at " Little Westover," in Mary- 
land, named for the James River plantation, 
and the home of Mrs. Ramsey's ancestors. 
Upon her marriage to Mr. Ramsey that dream 
was realized. 

It would be difficult to exaggerate the 
beauty and order of Westover in its present 
ownership. Possessed of abundant means, 
ambitious to have the old home rival its state 
in the time of Col. William Evelyn Byrd, Mr. 
Ramsey has spared nothing to perfect its 
restoration. The house is especially attract- 
ive. Without, from foundation to roof, every 
scar of decay or of war has been effaced, one 
of the wings — before in partial dilapidation — 
has been rebuilt, sagging lines have been 
straightened, and gardens brought to a high 
state of cultivation and beauty. Within, the 

51 



old home is the model of substantial elegance. 
The freshly decorated walls that adhere as far 
as possible to the former patterns, the waxed 
floors, the antique furniture — much of it re- 
maining through all the changes of occupa- 
tion, in its original setting — other of similar 
design gathered from Boston, New York, 
Philadelphia, and Baltimore, are all won- 
drously appropriate to the times of which 
Westover is itself a relic. Even the ancient 
semi-ballroom, semi-theatre, of the days when 
the " Virginia Comedians " mimicked the en- 
tertainments of the city in plantation homes 
at Christmas and on festal days, now restored, 
with all its properties, evinces how fully the 
present occupants have entered into the gen- 
ius and the life of Colonial days. 

I can only name " Berkeley," the adjoining 
plantation to Westover — the birthplace of 
President William Henry Harrison, and the old 
home to which he returned — after an absence 
of almost fifty years in a Western State — to 
write his inaugural " in his mother's room." 
Eight generations of the Harrisons had owned 
Berkeley and resided there. It passed out of 
the family thirty years ago. 

It would be as interesting to turn our steps 
52 



to another of the splendid estates on the 
James River — " Shirley " — a few miles north of 
Westover and Berkeley — the home of the Car- 
ters, and for two centuries vying with these 
in fame and value. The attractive home 
stands upon a promontory around which the 
river sweeps, affording views, from two sides, 
of the Colonial home, and stretches of richly 
cultured levels and venerable and gigantic 
shade trees. For lack of male heirs, and by 
the losses sustained in the changes attendant 
upon the war, the present family of the Car- 
ters have been unable to keep the property in 
the repair of earlier times, and it will prob- 
ably soon pass into hands not to the manor 
born. Indeed, one enters upon a field for a 
volume rather than for a hurried paper, in 
these homes, whose earlier occupants, and the 
owners for generations later, were related not 
only by good fellowship, but by ties of close 
consanguinity. That life of intimate com- 
munication for which the river afforded so 
easy an opportunity, is essentially a thing of 
the past — in a large majority of cases a his- 
tory to be reverently recalled, not to be re- 
vived. Economic conditions call for an occu- 
pation in contrast with that which has been. 

53 



It will bring with it a new temper and a char- 
acter of its own. "New times, new manners." 
May the latter — for honor, for largeness of 
heart, and for generous hospitality — equal 
the record of that heroic past. " The king is 
dead! " It is with a stricture of heart that one 
who has long revered and loved that dissolv- 
ing view, is compelled to add: "Long live the 
king! " 



54 



Two hundred and fifty copies, privately printed, 

/ / / 
of which this is Number / v H" 



